On the back of Nagoya Grampus's amazing 6-2 loss to two-time AFC Champions League winner Al-Ittihad in Saudi Arabia, it looks like one of the Asian Football Confederation's worst fears may come to fruition: a slew of empty seats in Tokyo's National Stadium for the Final to be held next month.
In the other semi-final, Korean surprise Pohang Steelers nutted out an important 2-0 home win to take to the away leg in Qatar against Umm-Salal. Barring a minor miracle in the form of a Nagoya victory by at least 4-0 in their home leg, this year's Champions League final will be played without a Japanese team meaning little travelling support. A half-empty stadium and a cavernous atmosphere will be a disaster for the AFC, and it just might make them rethink their somewhat ambitious move to make one of Asian football's showcase events a one-off affair at a neutral venue. According to Fox Sports pundit and commentator Mike Cockerill on this morning's broadcast, just 5,000 tickets have been sold for the match. Tokyo's National Stadium has a capacity of 57,000.
Football Federation Australia has expressed its interest in bidding for next year's AFC Champions League Final, according to this article.
For what it's worth, I think the AFC in its current state is far too unwieldy and far too large to accommodate a one-off continental Champions League Final at a neutral venue. The nature of Asian geography is not conducive to encouraging large contingents of supporting travellers, meaning that stadium capacity is left for neutrals to fill. The fact that the AFC Champions League does not yet have European-like prestige also makes filling stadiums a challenge. The football community knows the talent on offer in the AFC Champions League well, but it's fair to say that general populations throughout the Asian region do not.
In a sense taking the Final to a neutral venue is ripping the game away from the people that matter most to clubs - their fans. Adelaide United's remarkable run in the 2008 AFC Champions League, which culminated in two one-sided losses in the Final to Japan's Gamba Osaka, captured the attention of Adelaide and Australian football fans alike. Would the same level of excitement have been reached if Adelaide did not host a leg of the Final? Probably not.
If indeed the AFC is serious about its one-off Final policy and decides to continue it, then at the very least it should be rotated appropriately around the confederation to ensure that there is no favouritism. If Nagoya remarkably reaches the Final, one would have to think it will have significant backing from the stands and this isn't really fair.
In the meantime, the second leg awaits us with Pohang Steelers and Al-Ittihad the favourites to progress.
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